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12/02/2015

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.

3 hours

Last on

Thu 12 Feb 2015 06:00

Today's running order

0645

The funeral for 3 Muslims killed by a man who described himself on Facebook as a diehard atheist has been held today. Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19 were shot dead in their home near the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. There are claims of an anti-Muslim hate crime but police are saying the primary motive was over a neighbour dispute over parking. Regardless the killings have got the backs up of many Muslims round the world - who say they are only in the media when talking about terrorists, but not when they are killed for what they are? Rajini Vaidyanathan reports.

0650

The UK’s official album chart will include streaming for the first time from the end of this month. It means that, instead of physical sales alone, songs people listen to on services like Spotify will influence the album’s chart position. How exactly does this new system work? Is having streaming represented in the album chart a better reflection of what the public are listening to? And if so, does it mean the end of the physical album? Gennaro Castaldo is from the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), which represents the UK’s recorded music industry.

0710

On Thursday the leaders of 28 EU countries meet in Brussels for an informal one day summit that will focus on Ukraine, Greece and Terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks. This will also be the new Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras' first summit. Alexander Stubb, Prime Minister of Finland, is one of the leaders attending.

0715

The whistleblower who leaked evidence showing HSBC in Switzerland was helping some customers to evade tax has said detailed information would have been available to the UK government in 2010. Herve Falciani also tells the Today programme that the bank suffered a dramatic IT failure for 8 months which meant banking transactions went unsupervised, leaving them open, he says, to fraud.

0720

An investigation by the BMJ purports to reveal a questionable relationship between public health scientists working on nutritional advice and the companies whose products are widely held to be responsible for the obesity crisis. They say scientists taking money for research from companies such as Coca-Cola & Mars raises questions about the potential for bias and conflict of interest. But some think the BMJ has lost the plot by publishing this article, that they are more interested in campaigning on issues than offering good advice on public health and medicine & that they are smearing good scientists who take money from these industries but remain free of any influence. Dr Fiona Godlee is editor in chief of the BMJ and Colin Blakemore is chair of the Food Standard Agency’s general advisory committee on science & former CEO of the Medical Research Council.

0730

Revenge porn - where people post indecent images of someone on the internet - will be made a specific offence in England and Wales from today. Those found guilty of intentionally sharing an explicit image or video of someone without their permission could receive up to two years in jail. Maria Miller MP is the former Culture Secretary and Barbora Bukovska is a senior director for law and policy at Article 19, a registered charity in the UK set up to defend freedom of expression.

0740

Deflation, falling prices, has already arrived in the eurozone and may well be here in Britain in the spring - as the Bank of England is expected to confirm in its quarterly inflation report on Thursday. So is the unexpected death of inflation a good or bad thing? Economics editor Robert Peston reports.

0750

Education is being put into the centre of the General Election fight today as the Labour Party sets out plans to cap the number of children in infant classes and re-iterates a promise to make sure all teachers employed in schools are fully qualified. Tristram Hunt is the shadow Education Secretary.

0810

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France are held talks all night aimed at ending ten months of fighting in eastern Ukraine. Before the talks in Belarus began, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said achieving a ceasefire was essential. It's not clear if the leaders have made any progress. One of the key disagreements is over whether Ukraine or pro-Russian rebels should control the Russian-Ukrainian border. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting -- and the violence has escalated in recent weeks, with the rebels launching a new offensive.

0820

The much-anticipated film version of EL James' best-selling erotic novel "50 Shades of Grey" has its UK premiere tonight. But a handful of British critics have already seen the film – at a preview at the Berlin film festival yesterday. Telegraph film critic Tim Robey and Camilla Long, film reviewer at the Sunday Times, tell us whether we should all be excited.

0825

The final piece of track on the new Borders Railway will be clipped into place this morning at a ceremony at Tweedbank station. When the railway opens in June it will be the longest new mainland rail line to open in a century. It was controversially shut by Beeching in 1969 leaving the borders without a major rail link. Lord David Steel was a 26 year-old local MP when the track closed. He opposed its closure and has since campaigned for a new track to be laid down. When the line was closed and he tried to get the sleeper train back down to London, it was stopped by protesters who demanded he address them.

0830

The Liberal Democrats launch the front page of their General Election manifesto today - setting out five priorities for five years. The party says these five steps will be the path to a stronger economy and a fairer society. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's focus today will be on education. He'll launch the campaign on a visit to a primary school in the Conservative-held constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon. David Laws is the Liberal Democrat Schools Minister.

0840

Boris Johnson met Hilary Clinton in New York yesterday, keen to reassure her that Britain is America's "number one ally." But could the ambitious Mr Johnson have had an ulterior motive for meeting the woman widely tipped to be the next US President? Nick Bryant reports.

0850

Senator John McCain reportedly compared the initiative to the Munich Agreement in 1938 β€œHistory shows us that dictators will always take more if you let them,” Senator McCain allegedly said. β€œThey will not be dissuaded from their brutal behaviour when you fly to meet them to Moscow – just as leaders once flew to Munich.” How helpful are historical comparisons in dealing with the Ukraine crisis? Edward Lucas is author of The New Cold War and Christopher Clark is Regis Professor of History at Cambridge University and author of β€œThe Sleepwalkers – how Europe Went to War in 1914”.

All subject to change.

Broadcast

  • Thu 12 Feb 2015 06:00